Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Orchestra: Cleveland Orchestra
Conductor: George Szell
Number of Discs: 7
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Sony
Catalogue: 19802819962
Release: 2024
Size: 1.99 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
CD 01
Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21
01. I. Adagio molto – Allegro con brio
02. II. Andante cantabile con moto
03. III. Menuetto – Allegro molto e vivace
04. IV. Finale. Adagio – Allegro molto e vivace
Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36
05. I. Adagio molto – Allegro con brio
06. II. Larghetto
07. III. Scherzo – Allegro
08. IV. Allegro molto
CD 02
Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55, “Eroica”
01. I. Allegro con brio
02. II. Marcia funebre. Adagio assai
03. III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace
04. IV. Finale. Allegro molto
CD 03
Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60
01. I. Adagio – Allegro vivace
02. II. Adagio
03. III. Menuetto. Allegro vivace – Trio. Un poco meno allegro
04. IV. Allegro ma non troppo
05. Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b
Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67
06. I. Allegro con brio
07. II. Andante con moto
08. III. Scherzo – Allegro
09. IV. Allegro
CD 04
Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 “Pastoral”
01. I. Allegro ma non troppo
02. II. Andante molto moto
03. III. Allegro
04. IV. Allegro
05. V. Allegretto
CD 05
Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92
01. I. Poco sostenuto – Vivace
02. II. Allegretto
03. III. Presto – Presto meno assai
04. IV. Allegro con brio
Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93
05. I. Allegro vivace e con brio
06. II. Allegretto scherzando
07. III. Tempo di Menuetto
08. IV. Allegro vivace
CD 06
Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 “Choral”
01. I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
02. II. Molto vivace
03. III. Adagio molto e cantabile – Andante moderato
04. IV. Finale (Final Chorus on Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”)
CD 07
01. Egmont Overture, Op. 84
02. Coriolan Overture, Op. 62
03. Overture “King Stephen”, Op. 117
04. Leonore Overture No. 2, Op. 72a
05. Leonore Overture No. 1, Op. 138
06. Fidelio, Op. 72: Overture
Sony Masterworks proudly presents a special remastered recording of Beethoven, conducted by the legendary George Szell. This remarkable 7-CD collection, housed in an elegant clamshell box and accompanied by an informative booklet, will be available on December 13.
Many facets of George Szell come together in this album: Although born in Budapest to a Hungarian Jewish family, he was a true Viennese musician, supremely talented and rudely arrogant. Beethoven was central to his repertoire – even more so than for most conductors. The Cleveland Orchestra was the pearl in Szell’s crown. Artur Rodzinski turned a mediocre group into a fine ensemble; Szell polished it to perfection. Donal Henahan of The New York Times called it “the world’s keenest symphonic instrument.” A decade after Szell’s death, Cleveland’s music director Christoph von Dohnanyi complained: “We give a great concert, and George Szell gets a great review.”
“When one listens to these nine Beethoven symphonies, one does not hear a wrong note, a smudged entrance, an ill-tuned moment, nor an awkward phrase.”
Szell felt that Columbia shortchanged Cleveland in favour of Ormandy’s Philadelphia Orchestra and Mitropoulos’s New York Philharmonic, which were making far more recordings. Part of the reason was Szell’s limited repertoire: the 18th and 19th-Century Austro-German classics, to which he admitted Dvořák. He never recorded a French symphony – not Berlioz, not Bizet, not Franck, not Saint-Saëns. He disliked 20th-Century music intensely (of a new Stravinsky score: “It is written in the post-Webernian small-fart-burp-belch-hiccup technique.”) and recorded very little of it. In Rodzinski’s time, the orchestra was about 80 players, meaning a half-sized string section.
Szell managed to boost it to 100 by the time of these recordings. They were enormously troubled seasons, with continuing battles among Szell, the musicians, their union (which ruled rather than supported them), management, and the board. None of that can be felt in these faultless performances.